Iraq

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi caretaker prime minister Haidar al-Abadi on Monday walked back his pledge last week that Iraq would participate in the US sanctions regime imposed on Iran. Al-Abadi now will only say that Iraq will not trade with Iran in dollars. I suppose that the two could instead use Euros or […]

Baghdad (AFP) – Nationalist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr’s alliance won Iraq’s May parliamentary election according to a manual recount, the electoral commission said Friday, paving the way for a government to be formed nearly three months after the vote. Allegations of fraud prompted the supreme court to order a partial manual recount, but Sadr’s joint […]

Baghdad (Niqash.org) – There are anti-government protests in Iraq every summer. But the recent batch are different, and in ways that could hinder any resolution. The protests that have been rocking the Iraqi political establishment for almost a month now began when dozens of unemployed young men from the village of Bahila, on the outskirts […]

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq has raised more than $700 billion from oil since 2005, but almost the entire amount has been spent, the central bank announced Tuesday. “Between 2005 and 2017, the finance ministry has taken in $706.23 billion dollars in foreign exchange” from oil, it said in a statement. “A total of $703.11 billion, […]

Baghdad (Niqash.org) – A few days ago, a resident in the northern city of Mosul posted a comment about ongoing protests in southern Iraq on Facebook. “We greet you from Mosul,” wrote Imam al-Qaysi. “Our hearts are with you and we know what it’s like to live in these tragic conditions. We don’t have state […]

Doha (AFP) – The US and Qatar plan to expand Al-Udeid airbase, the biggest military facility used by Washington in the Gulf as it battles jihadists, Qatari state media said Tuesday. The two countries have also discussed making Al-Udeid a “permanent” base, the official QNA news agency said, as Doha seeks to bolster ties with […]